Mystery is over: Billionaire Adelson owns Vegas paper

BLOOMBERG NEWS

December 17, 2015

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino magnate and Republican donor, is the buyer who paid $140 million for the city's hometown newspaper, endingÂ days of secrecy over the new owner that has transfixed media watchers.

The Adelson family said it didn't want to disclose earlier that it was behind the purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal to avoid distracting from the Republican presidential primary debate that took place in town at the Venetian this week. The casino is owned by Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp.

"It was always our intention to publicly announce our ownership of the R-J,"Â the Adelson family said in a statement published in the newspaper Thursday.

Speculation over who bought the newspaper started last week after an entity called News & Media Capital Group LLC announced the purchase of the publication and some of its sister papers in Nevada from New Media Investment Group. The Las Vegas Review- Journal's own journalists protested, demanding more transparency from their new owner.

Following reports the buyer might be Adelson, the billionaire told CNN he had "no personal interest" in the newspaper. The Review-Journal reported Thursday the transaction was arranged by Patrick Dumont, the son-in-law of the 82-year-old Adelson and a senior vice president at Las Vegas Sands, citing unidentified sources.

Adelson, ranked 31th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a fortune estimated at $22.6 billion, spent millions of dollars trying to get Republicans elected in 2012.

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